The Sunnydale Simulation
by Fatima
Summary: Neo discovers a part of the Matrix where something has gone very, very wrong...


This is, as odd as it may sound, a Buffy/Matrix crossover. If you haven't seen The Matrix, or don't watch BtVS, you really won't get it. All Matrix characters except Krys and this particular incarnation of Hoppity (the RL Hoppity, of course, is her own creation) are the creations of the Wachowski Brothers and belong to them, Village Roadshow and Warner Brothers. All Buffy characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Warner Brothers. It was written before Choices aired—anything that happened from there on in in the show doesn't figure. It does refer obliquely to my story To Cage a Wolf ([http://Slayerfanfic.com/Fatima/wolf.html][1]). For those who don't have time to read 80 pages of fic, I'll sum up: Oz has access to his lupine senses and physical abilities when human. 

This story is for Kim, the real Hoppity, who had the misfortune of being on the phone with me when I said "You know, I think I'll write a Buffy/Matrix fic" and then had to listen to me figure out how it was going to work right then and there. For that, and for being the beta reader, she gets to be one of the heroes.

I also want to give continuing thanks to Mary Beth, for convincing me I should stop tossing what I write without ever letting anyone see it.

Willow sat in the large chair, staring at the man in front of her. Either he was completely insane, or the truth about Sunnydale was far worse than she knew. And the truth she knew was pretty bad. That option was scary. But the first choice was far scarier. Because if he was insane, he was an insane person who wanted her to choose a pill from one of the two in his hand.

"So, let me get this straight. I take the blue one..."

"And nothing. You stay here in Sunnydale and go on with your life. You'll remember nothing. But, if you take the red pill, everything will make sense. Why Sunnydale seems so cut off from the rest of the world, why so many strange things are always happening here... The truth is far more than you can imagine, Willow, I'm offering to drop the veil from your eyes."

"Why me?"

"We've been watching you, Willow. You have the gift. You've felt the world outside the world you know. Now, you're ready to see it."

"The gift? What, you mean my witchcraft?"

The man smiled. "That's what you call it. But it's so much more."

Willow stared at the stranger, and then at the pills in his hand. She felt a little like Eve in the Garden. Should she choose to continue as she was, or to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. And simultaneous with this thought was her choice, because, unlike, Eve, Willow didn't live in a paradise. Quite the opposite. She quickly picked up and swallowed the red pill.

Neo smiled. Trinity and Morpheus would be pleased. They had just gained a powerful ally.

***

Willow lay on the gurney, eyes closed against the bright light, drifting. She could hear voices, but her brain couldn't focus enough to follow the conversation.

"...not as emaciated...so young...adaptable...recovering rapidly..." And then one voice, deeper and more serious. "Yes, recovering in body, but what of her mind?"

After that, Willow drifted away.

It was a couple of days before Willow felt well enough to get up, and she still felt bizarrely weak. A quiet woman named Trinity had brought her some clothes. It was while she was putting them on that Willow had gotten her first really nasty shock.

There were holes in her arms and legs. Not like little bug bites, either. Opening the size of a dime, that upon investigation had metal sockets inside them. It didn't hurt, but even though she was still disoriented and confused, she knew they hadn't been there before. As she thought about what they could possibly be (her thought processes weren't quite caught up to the absurdity of them yet) she unconsciously moved to push her hair behind her ear and got her second nasty shock. 

Her hair was gone. She was completely bald.

And it was as she ran her hands over her shorn skull that she found a third thing.

Neo heard the scream and ran straight for Willow's bunk. She was huddling in the corner, looking like a trapped animal. When she saw him, she jumped up and tried to attack him, screaming "What did you do to me?" Neo easily avoided her weak blows. He was more worried she would hurt herself than hurt him. She very quickly wore herself out and just collapsed back onto the bunk, sobbing. Trinity had come in, and she went to the younger woman, putting her arms around the gaunt figure. Neo pulled up a stool and sat opposite the two women.

"Let me guess. You found the socket."

Willow nodded. "What is it?"

Neo caught Trinity's eye, wordlessly communicating what was needed, Trinity took the other woman's hand and guided it carefully around to the back of her own head. Willow caught her breath as her fingers touched cold metal. Unbidden, her other hand went to her own head, and she slipped into the refuge of analysis.

"Mine is smaller."

Trinity nodded. "You're younger. Technology changes."

"What's it for?"

A new voice came from the door. "The only way to know is to see for yourself." 

Willow turned to see a tall man, older than either Trinity or Neo. She recognized the voice. He was the one concerned about her mind. But she'd never seen his face before. "Who are you?"

Neo answered for him. "This is Morpheus. He's the captain of this ship."

"Ship? We're on a ship?"

Trinity put her hand up before Neo or Morpheus could respond. "Perhaps we should start at the beginning. Why don't we take Willow up to the control deck."

***

The next few days were a surreal blur to Willow. While, on an intellectual level, she reacted rather calmly to the revelations about the nature of the matrix, it didn't really become real for her until Morpheus and Tank took her to see the vast expanses of pods. She had started shivering uncontrollably, hyperventilating at the scale of it all. Billions of people, living out their lives in a small vat of goo, completely unaware of the truth... It had been almost more than she could take. 

She had fallen easily into the rhythm of life aboard the ship though. Besides Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus, there was also Tank, the "operator". He couldn't get into the matrix himself, as he'd been born in Zi'On, the last place left where humans were free, and thus didn't have the necessary hardware. So he ran the computers that allowed the rest of them to go in, supplying them with the necessary tools and systems. The four of them formed the core of the crew, and had been together for a very long time. Neo and Trinity were obviously wildly in love. 

The other two members of the crew were relative newcomers. Krys was like Tank--she'd been born free. She was young, barely 17, but she'd joined up with the pirate ships, as Zi'On referred to the rebels who floated through the caverns taking on the machines, as soon as she could. She had all the zeal of a true believer, and an astounding knowledge of anything to do with mechanics. It was she who kept the ship running. Hoppity was a quiet person, given to disappearing for hours at a time, only to return with a pile of relics of the lost civilization--books, for instance, or bits of hardware Krys would gleefully incorporate into the decrepit ship. Willow had once asked her why she'd taken the alias Hoppity, and she'd only laughed and said "Once upon a time, I was a rabbit..." Willow had chosen to leave it at that. In programming skills, no one could equal Hoppity, especially the discreet snooper programs the pirates used to spy on the machines' private communications. These bugs were always found eventually, but Hoppity's lasted twice as long as anyone's, and had already given the human rebels a substantial intelligence advantage.

And above them all, Morpheus, who reminded Willow of Kendra sometimes, for his ability to focus so intently on whatever the task at hand was. The others treated him with a devotion that Willow came to understand and feel herself quickly. His calm rationality, his brilliance at strategy, and his gentle but constant challenge of everyone under him were an astonishing combination. But while Willow could see what there was to worship about Morpheus, she was still in the dark as to why everyone, including Morpheus, was in awe, and even a little afraid, of Neo. She'd once asked Tank, who'd only smiled and said "Once you go into the matrix with him, you'll understand. He is The One."

This, of course, only made Willow more impatient to return to the matrix. Morpheus had said she'd have to wait until she'd finished her training, so so far she'd only gone into internal simulations that enlarged on her understanding of the rules, and how to break them. It turned out this is what she'd been unconsciously doing the whole time with her witchcraft. Once she'd grasped the fundamental concept, she was able to do far more everytime, and, although she was completely unaware of this, soon surpassed everyone else's expectations of her abilities. "She's progressing far faster than we could ever have hoped," Morpheus said, as he, Trinity, Neo and Tank sat in one of their periodic closed door meetings, long after the others had gone to sleep. "In some ways she reminds me of you, Neo."

Neo shifted uneasily. He had never really gotten comfortable with his uniqueness, and didn't like to talk about it directly. "Well, it helps she is from Sunnydale. She's far more open to things others would find impossible to believe."

"And speaking of Sunnydale," Trinity jumped in, "don't you think it's well past time you followed through on your promise and explained the rest to her? She's far too intelligent not to pick up on your evasions. Yes, it will be painful, but she has to know the whole truth, not just part of it."

Neo and Morpheus looked at each other. Morpheus nodded. "I believe it is time. As Trinity said, she knows we're keeping something from her. And if her advantage does come from her experience in Sunnydale, than the sooner we can enlist some of her friends to our side the better. We could use more people with skills like hers. And then of course..."

"...the Chosen One," Neo finished. "Yes, I believe it is time to take her back in. Tomorrow, then?"

There was general agreement, and Tank went to tell Willow that tomorrow was the big day.

***

It was with her mind all aflutter that Willow reported to the control room the next morning. Even though she knew it wasn't actually true, all she could think was that she was going home. To see Buffy, and Oz, and Xander, and even Cordelia again! And the sun.... She hadn't seen the sun for almost two weeks. Tank and Krys were preparing the equipment, while Hoppity sat at a console, working on her latest creation. Everyone else was waiting for her.

Neo spoke first. "Willow, before we go in, there's something we need to explain to you. Why don't you sit down?"

Now worried, Willow sat. 

"You see," Morpheus began, "everything we've told you about the matrix is absolutely true. It is a machine generated reality, designed to keep humans enslaved to harvest their energy. The vast majority of the human race lives out its life exactly as if it were the end of the 20th century. But there is another section of the matrix. As far as we can tell, something catastrophic went wrong there, and the machines were unable to fix it. But the people attached there can still be milked for power. So, rather than deactivate it, they just sealed it off and never went back. This is the Sunnydale Simulation."

Willow tried to wrap her mind around this, but found she couldn't. "I just don't understand. Sunnydale is some kind of alternate matrix?"

"No," Neo said. "Sunnydale is like a subroutine that doesn't work quite right. Rather than try to fix it, they just excised it from the main program. They only care about the power being generated anyway. The quality of life for the residents is irrelevant. We've been able to partially reconstruct what happened. There was some kind of event, what, we don't know, maybe a power surge. Anyway, it corrupted that section of programming. An agent was dispatched, but when it came into contact with the corruption, it too became contaminated. Eventually, they came up with a kind of super-agent, but even this agent was only able to keep even with the corruption, not destroy it, so rather than risk it spreading to the whole matrix, they slammed the door shut, with all the people, the super-agent and the rogue agent still inside. And that's how matters stand. While the rest of the matrix lives life as it actually was, Sunnydale is filled with demons, vampires, and other supernatural phenomena, all spawned by the original corruption."

Willow sat there absorbing this new information. The rogue agent in league with the corruption... That would be the Mayor and the First Evil. It had to be. But then, who was the super-agent... And with the question came the answer. "Buffy."

Trinity nodded. "Buffy is the super-agent. The Chosen One is a sophisticated program, designed to keep the corruption at bay. Within the context of the simulation, this casts her as the defender of the humans. It's ironic. An agent working for humanity instead of against it." 

Willow felt like Trinity was talking from down a great hallway. The words echoed without her actually hearing or understanding them. Buffy was an agent. Her best friend. An agent. Willow knew agents. She'd seen what they could do. She'd heard stories of even worse. But Buffy... "Does she know?"

"We honestly don't know," Morpheus said. "The Chosen One agent is unlike any other agent in the matrix. We're lucky its great strength comes at a price. If the machines had deployed her kind throughout the matrix... Well, let's just say, the war would have been over long ago."

"You're the first person we remove from the Sunnydale Simulation. We didn't even know it existed until a few months ago. We still don't have a really solid understanding of it, and have a hard time jacking in. But we think that Sunnydale and the Chosen One agent could potentially represent the end of the machines. We need you to show it to us. Because if we could get a Chosen One into the regular matrix, working for us... Think of the possibilities."

Willow did think, with the part of her that wasn't crying at the truth. An agent programmed to protect humans. One so strong it had kept another, corrupt, agent at bay for centuries. With an effort, she put aside the emotions that were threatening to tear her apart, and turned to Morpheus. "Okay, where do you want to start?"

***

Ironically enough, they emerged in Sunnydale in the same mausoleum in which Buffy had saved Willow's life when they first met. She started to smile at the memory of the good times until she noticed how dark it was. "Oh no! It's night! We have to get out of here."

Hoppity looked around. "Granted, I'm not real keen on being in a cemetery at night, but what's the big rush?"

Willow started to answer, then stopped and pointed over Hoppity's shoulder. "Them."

Everyone else turned and looked. Neo had seen one before, but for everyone else, it was their first experience with vampires. There were 8 of them, already fanned out and coming at them from every side. Trinity pulled out a gun, but Willow stopped her from firing. "Guns just slow them down. What we need are some wooden stakes or holy water."

Wordlessly, Neo pulled out several stakes from under his coat and gave them out. Willow took one, reminded the others the only kill shot was directly to the heart, and got ready. With a growl, the vampires rushed in, and the battle was joined.

Dimly out of the corner of her eye, Willow could see the others fighting, but she was too caught up in her own skirmish to concern herself too much. She'd killed lots of vampires before, but never in a direct one on one fight. She'd done a number of hand to hand fighting programs during her time on the ship in the real world, but this was the first time she'd put it to direct use outside of a simulation. And the simulations didn't have a vampire's strength or speed. Even Morpheus seemed to be having a problem. The only person who was winning was Neo, who was moving with a speed Willow found blinding. She couldn't even focus on where he was at any given time. Before she had time to wonder at this, though, there was suddenly a familiar blond blur in the middle of the battle. Buffy threw one off Hoppity and into a tree, where a handy branch did the job for her, and then started in on the rest. A roundhouse kick brought down another, giving Trinity the opening she needed to stake it, while a few well placed punches brought down several more. Neo, with that astonishing speed, staked two with one motion. At the end, there were six small dust piles, two fleeing vampires, and a few shaken, but unbloodied defenders. Buffy turned to Willow.

"Where have you been! Your mother's going nuts--she came back from her conference and you were just gone. None of us knew anything. I've had Giles chanting at the spirit gods for the last week, but they just said you were no longer in this world and wouldn't say what that meant. I thought maybe you turned yourself into a rat by mistake, and Oz has been out prowling around every night and day, trying to catch your scent."

Willow was too busy studying Buffy to pay much attention to the rant. An agent. Buffy was an agent. Were there any obvious clues? How was Willow going to find out if Buffy knew or not? Finally she came too, realizing Buffy was still talking. "And who are these people? You know better than to bring outsiders into a cemetery at night. Really Will. What's going on?"

Willow looked to Morpheus for guidance, but he just shrugged. No help there. So she took a deep breath and launched into the story she'd put together that morning. Buffy didn't buy a word of it.

"Willow, you're forgetting I *know* you. You'd never go to LA on your own without telling anyone. Not even for a 'sudden, amazing job opportunity.' Not with the full moon in three days. Not with the Mayor and Faith running around getting ready for god only knows what. Now, how about some truth?"

Morpheus interrupted. "I fear it is all our fault, Buffy. We met Willow here and asked her to come with us. The best way I could put it is we made her an offer she couldn't refuse."

Buffy looked at Morpheus with the distrustful look she reserved for mysterious strangers she met in graveyards. "Who are you and what offer could you possibly make that would send Willow to LA for almost two weeks? And while we're on the subject," she added, turning to Neo, "what's your deal? I've never seen anyone move like that." 

Trinity and Morpheus exchanged a look. Neo just looked at the ground for a moment, then back at the enraged Slayer. "I'm like you. Different."

Buffy puffed up, then turned to Willow. "You told them? Willow, what were you thinking, telling total strangers?"

Willow shook her head. "I didn't tell them, Buffy. They already knew. They're from a kind of alternate reality. That's where I've been. But they needed to learn about here, so now I'm back. I'm really sorry. I would have sent a message if I could." She paused, and the awkward silence deepened. It was Morpheus who finally suggested they get out of the cemetery and to somewhere safer. Willow made the introductions as they walked to Buffy's house. Luckily, Joyce was out, so there was no need to explain the 4, em, interestingly dressed, strangers. Sunnydale had never seen so much vinyl.

Once there, Willow called her mother and Oz to let them know she was okay. Her mother, uncharacteristically, seemed genuinely upset. Oz yelled at her for 5 minutes and then went to hang up so he could come over and do it again in person. She was only able to keep him from coming over by putting Buffy on, who assured him that Willow was okay, and being properly chastised for her disappearance. She called Xander too, but he wasn't home, so she left a message on the machine. Everyone settled into the Summers' comfortable living room. 

Willow was in torment. How was she going to explain to her best friend, who may or may not already know, that the whole world they knew was nothing but an elaborate virtual reality scheme designed to power an intelligent race of machines? Morpheus saved her the trouble by jumping in just as she started to speak.

"As Willow told you, we are from a world that parallels this one. In our world, we are at war with an enemy that has been beating us for centuries. We believe Sunnydale may hold the key to changing that."

"Sunnydale?" Buffy was incredulous. "All Sunnydale has is demons and vampires. Not a whole lot here that can help you."

"Well," Trinity said with a studied carelessness, "there is also the Chosen One agent."

Willow had been watching Buffy carefully, and the look on her face told her all she needed to know. "You knew!"

Buffy closed her mouth and nodded slowly, not saying a word or meeting Willow's eyes. 

Morpheus took a deep breath. He would have to proceed carefully now. One wrong word, and all was lost. "Then you must know why we would consider you a powerful ally."

Buffy smiled bleakly. "An agent programmed to defend humans. Yes, I can see it."

"Would you... Could you... go up against your creators?"

Buffy studied a wall, and then her fingernails. "I can. The algorithm puts a priority on defending biological life, but there's a flaw. There's no condition in there telling me why. If they'd said Defend Life to Preserve the Power Source, that would be a different story, and you'd all be dead already. As it was, they probably just assumed my own instinct for self-preservation would made me want to keep the power going. Will I...." She got up and walked to a window. From outside there was a scream. "I spend all day, every day, fighting the virus. I've been doing it for almost 200 years. They made me, threw me in here, and then locked the door." She turned back. Willow caught and held her eyes. "I'm tired of this life. I say screw 'em."

***

The group talked long into the night. While there was fundamental agreement on goals, there were some immediate obstacles Buffy raised, the foremost being the Sunnydale Simulation itself.

"I can't get out. Believe me, I've tried. But the lockdown they put on this place is extreme. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. The enemy here is the only thing I know of that we're almost afraid of. Or rather, it was until you came along," she added, giving Neo a telling look. "I'm sure they fear you." Neo blushed.

Morpheus distracted her. "Earlier, you said virus. What did you mean?"

Buffy turned to him. "That's what it is, a computer virus. An extremely elaborate one, but fundamentally no different from Robert Morris' worm, or Chernobyl. Zi'On got it in here somehow, and it had infected thousands of nodes before we could stop it. From Zi'On's point of view though, it was a failure. Sure, power flow was less efficient and reliable, but it didn't stop. As long as the virus stays shut up in here, it can't hurt the machines, but if it's unleashed on the whole matrix..."

"Virtual Armageddon," Morpheus finished.

Buffy nodded. "Millions would die. Yes, the machines would be seriously affected, but they'll recover eventually. The biological loss however would be catastrophic."

"So, it sounds like what you're saying is in order to unlock the door and get you out, we have to eliminate this virus." Hoppity had been quiet most of the night, but Willow could see the wheels turning at the prospect of the coding challenge this would represent.

Again, Buffy nodded. "Yes, but if it were that simple, I've have gotten out of here years ago. I'm code myself. If I get too close to the virus, I run the risk of contamination."

"What about a two-fronted attack--one from in here and another from outside?"

Buffy considered. "It would have to be extremely closely coordinated. The First is highly adaptable. It can react to defend itself immediately upon sensing a threat. The best I've been able to do is stalemate."

"We have a few tricks of our own," Morpheus said, glancing at Neo.

Willow, who'd been even quieter than Hoppity, finally spoke up. "Will someone please explain what's so special about Neo? Tank called him The One. What does that mean?"

Neo cleared his throat. "I'm like Buffy, only biological. I can do things no one else can."

"Like what?" Willow challenged.

Neo looked around the room, then pointed to a lamp on a side table. "Watch."

Willow looked at the lamp. Which was suddenly not there. And then, just as suddenly, it was back, but with a different shade, which, as she watched slowly morphed back to the original. She turned back to him, eyes wide. It was Morpheus who explained.

"Basically, everything you see around you is code; endless streams of 1s and 0s. Neo can rewrite the code with his mind; change it to suit his needs. 

Willow looked at Neo. "And this is different from my witchcraft?"

Neo nodded, then paused. "Well, yes and no. It's mostly a matter of scale. A lot of what you do is the same basic thing. When you float a pencil, you're changing the code that tells the pencil gravity should be acting on it. But to actually delete the lines that create the pencil is something else entirely."

Hoppity jumped in. "In our part of the matrix, Neo's a legend. The ultimate hacker. As a matter of fact, I always thought he *was* a legend. When Morpheus brought me out, and I met Neo for real, I thought he was just using the name. Borrowed glory. Then I saw him dodge bullets."

Willow said nothing and basically retreated from the conversation at that. Heretofore she had been fairly unimpressed with Neo. He was a competent hacker, and damn fine to look at, but he always had this slightly confused expression on his face, like he was trying to keep up with everything going on around him and not having much luck. Trinity was the real brains of the pair. The idea that Neo had some kind of almost god like power was a bit more than she could take. It took her a while to catch back up with the conversation, and when she did, she discovered Buffy was talking about her least favourite person.

"Faith is me. I am Faith."

"Yeah, except you're not deranged!" Willow interrupted. 

Buffy sighed. "It's all my fault. This host died, so I did what I'm programmed to do; I replicated to a new host. But then her friends brought her back to life, and since this is by far the best host I've had in decades, I decided to keep using it instead of the new one. The replication hadn't finished anyway, so I thought it would delete itself, but it didn't. It's highly unstable, but it is viable. And now it's found an emotionally disturbed host and has been completely corrupted by exposure to Agent Wilkins. But, she's still me, with all my skills and strength."

"Can we disable her from the outside?" Morpheus asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you gave us the source code, we could find a way to shut her down."

Buffy grimaced. "Forgive me if I'm not all rah-rah for that plan. If you can shut her down, you can shut me down. I do have some self-preservation instinct. I created the problem; I'll fix it."

"Fair enough," Morpheus smiled. "You'll deal with Faith. How about this Agent Wilkins?"

"I can take care of him," Neo said, "assuming he's no different from the rest of the standard matrix agents."

Buffy shook her head. "Not really, he's just warped and unpredictable. However, we need to stop tangoing around the real problem, which is the virus. Until that's dealt with, taking out Faith and Wilkins won't be all that productive."

"I may have an idea there," Hoppity said thoughtfully. "If Zi'On wrote it originally¼ "

"¼ then Zi'On probably has the code for it. Excellent, Hoppity," Morpheus said. "Okay, let's start planning."

***

Her mom was easy. Once she stopped by the house and assured her she was fine, just working on a project that required her to go out of town periodically, Sheila went right back into her normal parenting mode. "That's nice dear. Just do be careful around some of those LA people. You know, the incidence of psychotic behaviour is way up among while males ages 18-34 since the riots there."

Giles was a little harder. "What do you mean, defeat the Mayor? You know very well he's impervious to harm until this Ascension business coming up. "

"Yes, Giles, but I have some new information. Just, trust me. Buffy and I have already talked, and she'll fill you in."

And then there was Xander and Oz. It was close which was more painful.

"I just don't understand how you could disappear like that without telling anyone. Willow, we've been friends since we were eating sand together at the playground, and not even a phone call."

Willow hung her head and avoided eye contact with the man who'd been part of her life for so long. "I know Xander, and I've said I'm sorry. I had my reasons. And I still do. Please. I'm doing something very important here, and I need your help. I'm your friend and I trust you. Now, I need you to trust me." 

Xander studied her carefully. "Okay, but you got some 'splaining to do, Lucy." His terrible Ricky Ricardo impression helped break the tension, and the two old friends laughed and turned the talk to trivialities.

Oz wasn't quite so easily dissuaded, because unlike Xander, he had some other information. "You don't smell right."

"What do you mean? I bathed quite recently, thank you very much." Her attempt at distracting him with a joke didn't work.

"You smell like you're far away. Like you're not really here."

Willow pondered how to get around this. She hadn't counted on his lycanthropic senses being so keenly tuned as to be able to tell she wasn't wetwired into the system anymore. After considering and discarding a few approaches, she decided to be blunt. "You're right. I am someplace other than you think I am. But the part of me that's important is right here, right now, in front of you."

"Willow, that makes no sense whatsoever."

"It does if you know what I know."

"So tell me what you know."

Willow sighed. "I'm sorry Oz, I just can't. Not yet. There are some things¼ Well, let's just say that if what we have planned goes right, the whole world is going to change. Then I can tell you."

"And if it goes wrong?"

"It won't matter." Because you'll all be dead, she mentally finished up. "I'm asking for your faith. Can you give that to me? Please?"

Oz nodded, but she could see the doubt in his eyes.

***

*dark rushing falling into a wall of noise and static and*

"Uh!" a gasp of air, a moment of confusion. She blinked and recovered herself from the matrix. She felt Krys leaning over her, then an unpleasant ripping sensation as the probe was withdrawn. Krys helped her out of the chair. Her knees buckled, but she caught her just in time.

"Careful! You were in there a little long, we were starting to get worried. Everyone else has been back for a while."

Willow tried to shake off the feel of the matrix, regain her sense of balance, and bring herself back to the real world. "I needed to talk to a few people."

"Well, everyone else is waiting for you. We can't get into the Zi'On mainframe when we're jacked in, because of the security risks. Hoppity will be glad to know you're back. Oh, and Morpheus wanted to talk to you. He's on the flight deck."

Still a little wobbly, Willow went off, finding Morpheus hunched over a console, studying something Willow couldn't quite see. "Ah Willow, good to have you back. I trust everything was okay with your friends and family." Willow nodded, glumly. "What's the matter? You seem a little down."

Willow sighed. "It was kind of hard to see them, knowing the truth, and not say anything. Oz actually lives in a puddle full of slime, not in that nice old Victorian on Oak, and he's a werewolf because of some 200 year old computer virus. It does have an effect¼ "

Morpheus nodded solemnly. "It does. But if this all goes well, we can wake him up from the puddle and he'll know the truth. Neo tells me good things about that young man. I'm sure he'd be an asset for the cause."

Willow laughed in spite of herself. "Oz is brilliant, don't get me wrong, but unless you can dance to it, he doesn't want to be part of your revolution. He's not exactly the militant type."

"Ah well. Maybe later we can discuss this some more. In the meantime, we have two corrupt agents and a virus to overcome. And you are going to be crucial in this."

"What can I do?"

"For starters, you can survive." At Willow's perplexed face, he turned the console toward her. "I've been going over the medical readings from our time in the Sunnydale Simulation. Hoppity and I were in the danger zone. Trinity wasn't doing very well. Even Neo showed an elevated pressure and some odd brain patterns. But you? Just fine. Not a single blip. From now until we actually mount the confrontation, you'll be the only one going in. I've already told the others. You'll be the liaison and coordinate with Buffy and anyone else you get involved."

Willow opened her mouth, then closed it again, and blinked rapidly. "By myself?"

"You're the only one who can do this. As a native Sunnydalian, you're the only one of us who can spend an extended amount of time in the Sunnydale Simulation without suffering any ill effects. And you know the terrain. You're the one."

Willow blushed. "Okay."

That aside, the two got down to brass tacks.

The next few weeks were a frenetic hodgepodge of activity. After an intense search, Zi'On found some of the programmer's notes and the source code for the virus, much to Hoppity's glee. She kept going on about how ingenious it was; something about interleaving bubbles. It was also extremely dangerous. Zi'On had it stored across three independent systems, to keep the subroutines from contacting each other. Hoppity worked on it at a standalone station Krys jury-rigged, but she still had to be extremely careful. Neo and Trinity did an exhaustive inventory of everything, friend and foe, in the Sunnydale Simulation, and what effect they might have. Morpheus maintained his benevolent control over the whole thing, as usual. And Willow was in and out of Sunnydale at least two times a day. It was getting to be disorienting. One minute she'd be on a rusting ship full of people whose grandparents had been born after humanity lost the sun, and the next she'd be in Sunnydale, where the darker truth was hidden by the splendid weather and beauty of Southern California.

The evening before the attack, Willow went in one last time. Morpheus had been about to question her timing, but the look on her face made him think otherwise. She strolled through the streets of her town, watching the sun start to set, thinking thoughts of gilded prisons. Her feet carried her automatically to where she wanted to go. From outside, she could hear the band warming up. The first few people were just starting to arrive, laughing and looking forward to an evening with friends. Just another night at the Bronze. She went in.

As planned, Buffy was there, in the back. Willow wove her way through the pool tables, taking a seat on the sofa next to her friend.

"I told the others to be here in about half an hour. Gives us a chance to talk," the blonde said.

"Great." Willow said, and then the two reviewed every step of the plan. Krys had gussied up the engines to keep them one step ahead of the Sentinels. Tank and Morpheus had gone over the programming with a fine tooth comb, making sure everything was up to par. Hoppity had built a virus attack program that would disable its defenses and hopefully keep it busy long enough to distract it from Neo, Trinity, and Willow, who were the only three going in. They would take out Agent Wilkins and Faith, and confirm the destruction of the virus. Tank had littered the entire simulation with exit points, in case Trinity got into medical trouble.

After the finished, Willow was silent for a moment. "I've been thinking, you know, about¼ after. What are we going to do when the Sunnydale Simulation is opened."

"Me too. I figure you'll wake up Oz and Xander. Cordelia will probably want to stay here. She's not going to be too hip on living in a world where you can't get a tan." 

Willow laughed. It felt good to laugh. It had been so long¼ "That's true. I really want Giles, but Morpheus says he's too old."

"This is true."

"And, of course, you."

Buffy stared at Willow. "Willow, you can't wake me. I don't exist out there, remember?" 

"But there is a Buffy. We could wake her up."

"Yes, I am currently living as part of a host named Buffy. But if you were to wake Buffy, you wouldn't get me. I'm the combination of Buffy and the Chosen One agent program. It's only together that I am the person you know. If you were to take my host off the matrix, I'd just have to find another one."

"I just can't bear the thought of you, in one of those pods. You're my friend." 

Buffy took Willow's hand. "I understand. And if it means so much to you, I'll give up this host and find a new one so you can wake me up. It's just that I'm just very attached to Buffy. She's by far the strongest host I've had in years. I've been more effective in the last 3 years than I was for the entire 50 years preceding them. I can genuinely do you more good, after Sunnydale is opened up, if you let me keep her. I know it's cruel to talk about another human being like she's a toy, or a suit you take one and off, but I'm an agent. This is how I live."

Willow was silent at that, and Buffy didn't continue. So it was that Xander and Oz found them, each lost in their own thoughts. It was only with a great deal of Xander's usual frenetic capering around and Oz's quiet humour that they were able to get the two women to finally open up and have fun, just like old times. 

***

The next morning came too soon for Willow, who had cherished these last few hours of relative normalcy before she released Sunnydale and those who were trapped there to the wider world. Now she stood nervously in back of the City Hall with Buffy, Angel and Neo. Trinity, Giles, Xander and Oz were at the various other entrances, preparing a diversion. Buffy had introduced Neo and Trinity as friends and allies from LA, but their unusual dress and cool demeanor had definitely thrown the others off. "What is with those guys? Is it just me, or did they get lost on the way to a death metal video shoot?" Xander asked.

"There's definitely a high synthetic fabrics factor going on there," Oz agreed. "Where did you say you met these two, Will?"

"Um, LA? But I think they're originally from somewhere back east."

"Well, then..." Xander said, his west coast sensibilities perfectly prepared to use that to explain everything. "And they're supposed to help how?"

Buffy jumped in. "They've dealt with people like the mayor before. They volunteered. We needed their experience."

"You know you mentioned that before, but I've been all through the Watcher Diaries, and I can't find anything about anyone else like the Mayor," Giles said.

"A few things have happened below the scope of the Council's radar, Giles. They're not omnipotent," Buffy said, her sarcasm possibly influenced by the events of her 18th birthday.

"Yes well, I can't argue with that, but still you think there would have been some mention. And this Neo and Trinity, they're certainly, er, em, unusual."

Willow and Buffy exchanged a look, and Willow spoke up. "Look, I know they're not what we usually get here in Sunnydale, but I know them. They're good guys."

"Do they have anything to do with why you don't smell right anymore?" Oz asked. "Cause they don't smell right either."

Willow got a pained expression on her face. "Look, Oz, I told you I can't really explain that now. Please just trust me, and by extension, them."

There was general, if somewhat disgruntled consensus, leading to the current situation. At last, there was the sound of an alarm from inside, and the pounding of feet as people ran to respond to the alert. "Okay, let's go!" Buffy signaled, and the small group snuck in. The halls were relatively empty on the first floor, but they had to duck and cover a few times as they got closer to the mayor's office.

Buffy carefully peeked through an archway. The site of a familiar petite brunette made her pull rapidly back. She and the others took a few steps away. "Okay," Buffy whispered, "Faith's right around the corner. Here's where we split up. Willow, you know the way up to the Mayor's office. Be careful!"

Willow nodded, the two friends shared one more hug, and then the two groups split up. Buffy and Angel moved forward and Buffy check again. The only people in the hall were Faith and another man, to whom Faith appeared to be giving directions of some kind. Buffy stepped around the corner.

"Well well. If it isn't the Mayor's favourite lapdog. Is he feeding you a better class of kibble these days?"

Faith spun around, her face already flushed with anger and hostility. "You're just jealous that I'm on the winning side, B. Can't handle the competition." 

Buffy smiled, ignoring Faith's contemptuous use of the hated nickname. "You haven't won yet, Faith. And I still have a few tricks. And with that, Buffy launched herself at Faith and the battle was joined. Angel, as directed, hung back, not getting involved until the man Faith had been talking to, who'd run away at the first sign of trouble, came back with reinforcements. 

Willow, of course, knew nothing of this. She and Neo crept quietly up the stairs, freezing at any sign of others in the building. Finally, they reached the right corridor. Willow held up her hand, and they both stopped. There didn't appear to be any sign of life, or unlife, about. Cautiously, they glided up to the Mayor's office door. Neo listened intently and after hearing some movement, nodded once at Willow, then soundlessly mouthed "1¼ 2¼ 3¼ " 

The Mayor looked up with some surprise as the two rebels burst in, but not nearly enough, to Willow's mind. "My goodness, someone sure is feeling destructive today. You could have just knocked you know. Now the taxpayers are going to have to pay to fix that door." Coming around the desk, he continued, "Willow, why don't you introduce me to your most interestingly attired companion. I can tell you're certainly not from around here, Mr.¼ ." He finished, holding out his hand for a shake.

"Just Neo," Neo said, ignoring the outstretched hand. "You may have heard of me. From the Oracle." And with that he just dove into the Mayor, who managed to look properly surprised and upset this time.

Willow couldn't believe it. It was almost disappointing. It couldn't be this easy. Not after all this time. 

She was right.

Neo reappeared from the Mayor, retching and looking panicked. "He's¼ it's like a pit of filth. You can feel it becoming part of you." 

The Mayor smiled. "You can't imagine I wouldn't have anticipated this kind of attack. I have been in here for more than a century, but I still remember what happened the last time we faced you. You are him, aren't you. The One. Well, I must say, I'm a little disappointed. The person Zi'On and all those hopeless rebels waited for so long, and you can't go up against one little virus."

"What?" The Mayor finally remembered Willow was in the room at her cry and returned his attention to her. 

"Well, how did you *think* I became invincible? By eating my spinach, like that ridiculous sailor with the anatomically impossible arms? Of course not. I tied my code into the virus. And come the Ascension, it's going to be one and the same. Just one, glorious program. Our strength combined will be enough to lay waste to this entire section of the matrix and burst free into the rest of it. It'll be beautiful," he trailed off, looking a little dreamy at the thought. Then he returned to the room. "So go ahead, try and kill me. Seeing as how the best agent they could come up with could only battle the virus to a stalemate, I think I'm safe."

Willow stared at the perverted agent, and then just reached behind her and grabbed the still shaky Neo. "C'mon, we're getting out of here."

The Mayor just smiled. "An excellent choice. I'd ask you to fix the door, Neo, but I think you're probably still a little weak. Maybe later." And the two fled the office, hearing the Mayor's laughter behind them for far too long.

***

They met Buffy and Angel on the second floor, as agreed. Angel had Faith trussed up tighter than a Sunday turkey flung over one shoulder. She was out cold. Willow screeched to a halt when she saw her. "Jeepers, Buffy, what'd you hit her with?"

Buffy smiled. "Nothing that can't be repaired. She'll live. How'd it go with the Mayor?"

Willow shook her head, and then pulled Buffy aside so they could speak in private. "Not so good. He's tied himself together with the virus. He can't be destroyed as long as it's here."

Buffy nodded. "Well then, it looks we'll just have to take them out together. Two for one. Let's get the others and go back to the library. Notify the outside of the change in plan." Willow nodded and pulled out the cellphone. 

They met up with the others back at the library. Oz had a lovely bruise above his right eye, and Xander was limping a little, but other than that everyone was fine. Angel threw the still unconscious Faith in the cage and the somewhat battered group assembled. 

"Well, I see we got Faith, but what of the Mayor?" Giles started.

"Not such good news on that front, I'm afraid," Neo replied. "This one is different from the ones I've encountered before. He has actually tied himself back to the First, so he can't be destroyed unless the First is."

"But that's impossible," Giles protested. "This isn't some run of the mill vampire we're talking about. The First Evil has been around longer than the planet, longer than maybe even the cosmos."

"True," Trinity said. "But we have some assistance from beyond. And I mean that literally. We may actually have an advantage on it this time."

Willow had to turn her head to the side at that to hide her smile. She knew Giles would never be able to picture or believe a pale, emaciated group of rebels hunched over computers aboard a decaying ship floating through unending darkness as 'assistance from beyond.'

Giles started to argue, but Buffy put a stop to it by saying "Giles, please, I can't explain why, but they're right. They do have help we've never had before. This is going to work." Giles was so taken aback by Buffy's tone he let the matter drop.

"Okay," Buffy continued. "Here's the plan." And the group gathered together and listened.

***

Oz dropped noiselessly down the manhole opening, landing with his usual lycanthropic grace, and then turned and helped Willow down. Neo and Trinity were right behind her. Trinity pulled out her cellphone. "Hop. Yeah, we're in position. Everyone else is converging toward the source. Give us 5 minutes and then launch the antiviral." She hung up and then nodded and the four proceed quietly toward their goal, Oz leading the way. Willow hadn't wanted him to come, but he'd insisted, pointing out that his canine senses were much keener than theirs, and that since he had no intention of staying behind, they might as well make use of them. Xander, not to be outdone, insisted on coming along as well. He, Buffy, Angel and Giles were approaching from the other side. 

Oz wrinkled his nose in disgust. Willow's heart went out to him. She knew with his hyperkeen sense of smell, the stench down here must be making his stomach twirl. "Are you okay?" she whispered, coming along side him and taking his hand.

He nodded. "Just takes a few minutes to get used to. I'll be okay. How about you?"

Willow nodded. "Just looking forward to getting this over with and moving on."

"To what? I mean, you still haven't told me where you keep disappearing to, or where you found the Goth Gang," he said, gesturing over his shoulder at Neo and Trinity. 

Willow looked away. "Let's just get through this, and then, if you choose it, I'll show you the truth."

"What do you mean, if I choose it. Of course I choose it."

"Oz, it's not that simple. Just trust me, and wait. C'mon, you're the guy who said it would take you a few days to get used to being a werewolf. I know how keyed up you get about these things."

Oz knew himself enough to give a soft chuckle at that, and the tension was broken. They slinked along the passage a little further until Oz suddenly put his hand up. Neo came up from behind and wordlessly asked why. Oz held up 4 fingers and then pointed to his two canine teeth. They all nodded, fell back against the wall and made not a sound. As the whole point was to make it to the chamber Buffy had previously met the First in without raising any kind of alarm, they certainly didn't want to try and take on 4 vampires at once. At last Oz nodded, and they continued on even more carefully. There was one more such encounter, before there was a sudden cry and the sound of many running feet. Oz caught his breath and suddenly leaned heavily against Willow, who was able to catch him just in time. He shook his head and recovered. "Sorry, just felt a little funny for a second there. It sounds like your outside help just kicked in though. Let's go." And the four, stealth no longer as much an issue, moved rapidly down the sewer, emerging into a dark cave already swarming with chaos. 

Buffy and the rest had gotten there first and were already engaging the eyeless priests and assorted vampires and demons in a pitched battle. As Willow watched, Angel smashed one with far too many tentacles and claws for her taste into a wall, spinning it around and relieving it of its head with a large knife. Oz joined in the battle, while Willow, Trinity and Neo went over to the center of the room, and their goal.

The First, stripped of its outer layers by the oh-so-resourceful Hoppity, resembled nothing so much as a beach ball, although Willow had to admit she'd never seen a beach ball glowing and crackling with energy and floating in mid-air. As they approached it, it rose up higher in the air and launched a smallish lightning bolt at them. They hastily took a step back and Neo took out his cellphone. "Hoppity, this thing has some incredible defenses. It just tried to fry me. Can you wear it down a little more? What do you mean growing back? Damn, you have any ideas? Uh, hold on, Willow's trying to say something." Neo passed the phone to the frantically signaling Willow.

"Hoppity, what's happening?"

"It's astounding. When you strip off a defense, it grows back almost immediately. Watch, tell me what you see." As Willow watched, a black spot appeared on the surface of the ball. It grew larger, spreading out from the center, revealing an underlayer, like a piece of paper burning and revealing the piece underneath. But before the whole top layer could be consumed, the newly exposed piece bulged up and into the top layer, replacing and filling in. Within seconds, it was whole again, and just as malevolent. 

"Hoppity, the next layer down on the code is coming up and filling in what you undo. This isn't going to work."

"No, it's not, is it." Willow froze at that voice, and turned, dreading what she was going to find. He was standing right behind her, completely untouched by the chaos around them. "Why do you think I joined my code to it? Indestructible is indestructible, and if you think your piddling little group of pirates is going to succeed where 200 years of machines have failed, well, then, you're living in even more of a dreamworld than the people still wetwired to the matrix. Face it, you can't win." 

Willow stared at him, mind working furiously. "She brought the cellphone back to her mouth and said "Hop, you said each section is coded independently of the next, right?"

"Yeah."

"Try going in the opposite direction."

"Of course! I can do that. Give me a few seconds to bring up that section of the antiviral and launch it." The call cut off abruptly and Willow returned her attention to the Mayor and his extremely unpleasant smile.

"It doesn't matter. There is nothing that can stop the First. And once this minor annoyance is done with, we can finally burst free from this miniscule little corner of the matrix and take over the whole thing."

Willow held his gaze for a moment, feeling his confusion at her lack of fear. She allowed herself one small smile, just to bait him a little more, and then spoke. "There's something we never told you. And I just want to see your face when you hear this, because it's just too perfect, and you're going to realize you've been forgetting something very important all along. This virus is the creation of Zi'On scientists. We are agents of Zi'On." She paused, knowing it was hokey, but she wanted to see if he could figure it out on his own. There was a tremor as the ball behind her began to shake. All the supernatural beings in the cave, unfortunately including Oz and Angel, cried out as if in great pain. The Mayor's face had an expression she never thought she'd see on it: stark fear.

"No, you don't. You can't¼ "

"That's right, Mayor Wilkins. We have the source code."

The tremors grew stronger, and everyone but the good guys and the Mayor started to flee. Oz was staggering as if he'd been hit, and Angel was curled up on the floor, Buffy at his side. The Mayor had also collapsed and was trying to get back to his feet. Giles and Xander were staring wildly in confusion. Willow turned back to the First. It was about half the size it had been and shrinking rapidly. Suddenly, a strong wind came out of nowhere and there was a shrieking of a million voices. The First dropped down to the size of a grapefruit, and then stopped, along with the wind and noise. In the sudden silence, everyone stared at each other. Willow reached out her hand, and what was left of the First dropped harmlessly into it. She pulled out the phone and hit the speed dial. "Hoppity, it worked. It's gone."

"Not quite. The kernel's still there. I can't delete it from this end. Can you see it?"

Willow looked down at the lump in her hand, still giving off a soft glow, and spoke as if through a dream "Yes. We'll take care of it." She turned to Buffy. "You do it. There's nothing left that can harm you. And it's what you're here for."

The Mayor saw what Willow and Buffy intended to do and somehow found the strength to launch himself at her, howling "No!" His progress was stopped by the sudden appearance of a black-clad leg, kicking him in the chest. Neo gave him a few more punches for good measure, and the Mayor was out for the count. Trinity came up beside Neo, who looked at her. "I really dislike this man." Trinity smiled, and the two leaned into each other.

Buffy took the kernel, her eyes unreadable. She turned to Angel, who was propped up against the wall, face even more ashen than normal, and obviously in bad condition. Her eyes filled with tears. "Angel, you know I love you more than anything in the world. So I'm going to free you now. No more vampire. No more cursed life. No more darkness." She took his hand in hers, leaned in and gently kissed him on the lip. And with her other hand, crumbled the kernel away, scattering it like so much ash across the floor of the cave. With the first squeeze, a look of wonder came over Angel's face and he pulled away and gazed at her. He barely managed to say "Buffy?" before he faded away. Buffy rocked back onto her heels and gave into her tears. Giles went to her and she abandoned herself into his embrace, looking very much the scared and lonely 18 year old girl she almost was. Willow looked at the spot where the mayor had been, and saw only a few charred cinders. A groan reminded her of Oz, and she spun around and turned to him.

"Oz! Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not. It feels like someone's ripped out my insides and put them back again in a new arran-." He paused. "Willow, oh my god, Willow. It's gone!"

"What's gone?"

"The wolf! It's not there anymore! I can't smell hardly anything and my hearing¼ Willow, I'm human again!" He swooped Willow up into an enthusiastic hug. "Human! I'm human! What did you do?"

Trinity stepped in. "When we destroyed the First, all the things spawned by it went with it. No more demons or monsters or vampires. Since your human half was intact, it just stripped out the wolf half and left the rest behind."

"That's why we lost Angel," Buffy added, still snuffling. "The First was keeping him alive. No First, no life."

"So no Angel," Willow said. "You knew this would happen, didn't you."

Buffy nodded. 

"But you never said anything."

Buffy smiled weakly. "When you've spent your entire existence working toward a goal, you can't let a little thing like true love get in the way. Besides. I'll keep the memories." She paused for a moment, obviously lost in one of those memories. "I've stayed behind when lots of people I cared about moved on. I'll heal."

Trinity cleared her throat. "Willow, we're way over time. We really have to go."

Willow turned and gave her acknowledgement, then turned back to the others. "We have to leave now, but we'll be back. Buffy," she said, handing her the cellphone. "You know how to reach me." Buffy nodded. Willow turned to Oz. "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise. And we'll have that talk, okay?"

Oz nodded, and the three rebels left the cave, into the suddenly untainted sunshine of the Sunnydale Simulation.

***

Three days later, Willow sat with Oz on a secluded bench in the park. They were enjoying the novelty of being outside, without weaponry, at night. Oz was basking in the light of his first unsullied full moon in a year. 

"It's just amazing. It's like Sunnydale is a normal town suddenly. Willow, you are a genius, and I never should have questioned you."

Willow smiled. "That's very nice, but you're avoiding the question."

Oz sighed. "Does this have anything to do with why no one's heard from Xander since yesterday?"

Willow nodded. 

"What about Buffy?"

"Unfortunately, for reasons you will discover if you so choose, Buffy can't go where I'm asking you to go."

"Okay." Oz pursed his lips and looked down at the small box Willow was holding. "So my choices are¼

Red or blue."

Author's Notes

I was initially daunted by how to make it all fit in a Buffy/Matrix crossover. But the more I thought about it, the more it worked and eventually I was able to get most of it in. There are a few questions people might be asking now, though, that I'd like to address, since I just couldn't get it all in to this one story. The overarching thing to remember is Morpheus' line in the movie: "Your mind makes it real."

__

Where did the Watchers come from in this reality? 

In a reality that has spontaneously created demons, vampires, Snyder, etc., it seemed only logical that a group of minds who were of a more inquisitive bent would adapt themselves to the reality by attempting to codify it. Of course, they never knew that the Slayer was in fact an intelligent program, and very much the creation of cold science rather than mysticism. The Chosen One agent tolerates them, because she knows it fits nicely with the whole mythos that has been created to account for the corruption spread by the Zi'On virus. 

__

Agents looked the same as they jumped from body to body. Buffy looks different. Explain that.

A different kind of agent, a different kind of manifestation. The Chosen One agent isn't quite so all-encompassing. She's more like that hair colouring that works with your own tones and highlights than the kind that just strips all your colour off and replaces it with something else. (Why yes, I did just get my hair done, why do you ask?)

__

What happened to Faith?

Ah, that is a conundrum When last we saw her, Faith was out cold in the library cage. In the sequel, she busts loose and causes all kinds of trouble for the rebels in the rest of the matrix, because that's just the kind of gal she is.

__

Sequel? There's a sequel?

No. And I don't really plan on writing one, since it would be more of a Matrixfic than a Buffyfic, and it's Buffy that's my main obsession. If you want to write one, knock yourself out. Just give me credit for the original idea and for Joss' sake use proper grammar and spelling.

__

Explain vampires in this context. People still only live 75 or so years, whether or not they're jacked into machinery.

Well yes, but my vampires are in fact dead. Some other vampire bit them and then mixed their blood. That spread the corrupt code to the next person, (it's all a big metaphor) and had the side effect of keeping their code alive, even though the original person is actually dead; killed in the vampire attack. They're literally (ravening, bloodthirty) ghosts in the machine. 

__

Wait a minute. But the Matrix has only been online about 200 years. Angel's been dead for at least 220. How do you explain that?

New math… *****grin***** I didn't say it all worked.

   [1]: http://Slayerfanfic.com/Fatima/wolf.html



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